Per Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, the word “lunch” likely derives from “clunch” or “clutch,” meaning “as much food as one’s hand can hold.”...
It was lunch, so there was sunshine, streaming into the dining room, backlighting the cursive lettering on the plate-glass windows. I felt as though I had just put on a cloche and pulled up a seat in the cafeteria of a Hopper painting....
"Cloche" — which means "bell" in French — is a bell-shaped hat:
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How does lunch differ from luncheon? Which derives from which?
I don't know what the hell she is talking about. It just seems like an excuse to drop a lot of once fashionable names. Human, rather than AI-generated slop.
I appreciate lunch, even if it's only a modest PBJ sandwich.
Now do 'dinner', whose definition used to be as the main meal of the day, whether served at midday or in the evening. There's 'dinner and supper' for the former, and 'lunch and dinner' for the latter. Ranch hands in the hot regions traditionally took their dinner at midday, then siesta.
Do people still say "supper"? Is it a regional thing?
White woman with boobs. New Yorker joining in on the racism?
Supper is a small meal taken in the evening, when the main meal of dinner was served earlier in the day.
A toque by any other name would still be a toque…
"How does lunch differ from luncheon? Which derives from which?"
Per the OED, "lunch" is a much older word, going back to 1591, but meaning a thick piece — "a hunch or hunk." People used to write things like "He shall take breade and cut it into little lunches..." and "Our Master was well content..that we should roste a good lunch of porke."
From there, people were writing things like "Noonings, and intermealiary Lunchings" and "For our Breakfast and after-noons Lunchins."
The first spelling "luncheon" is from 1706: "Then others more Hungry, their Stomachs to please, Sit down to their Luncheons of House-hold and Cheese."
And that wasn't the meal we call lunch, but the eating that took place after breakfast and before the midday meal called "dinner."
Anyway, "lunch" as a synonym for "luncheon" is noted in 1829: "The word lunch is adopted in that ‘glass of fashion’, Almacks, and luncheon is avoided as unsuitable to the polished society there exhibited."
Almacks was a very exclusive social club, so that means it's more low class to say "luncheon" and fancier to say "lunch." Americans seem to think it's the other way around. So take a tip from me and never use the word "luncheon"... unless you need a rhyme for "truncheon."
Supper is still eaten in the Midwest, or at least in the rural parts. And then there's the Last Supper.
In the northern or working class parts of the UK the evening meal is called tea.
Fun use of "cloche" there since it also refers to the bell shaped cover usually covering a plate (rather than a handful) of food.
i Like chop suey! it's nearly as good for lunch as chow mein
""lunch" is a much older word, going back to 1591, but meaning a thick piece — "a hunch or hunk." People used to write things like "He shall take breade and cut it into little lunches..."
sounds like, lunch is supposed to be sandwiches (or tacos)
When I am dining in a fine restaurant I always prefer to have a long and leisurely lunch. Spending a few hours eating and drinking in the evening leaves me too tired at the end. A long lunch followed by a walk home from the city center is a perfect way to spend the day. I miss having a cigarette or two with brandy and coffee at the table, but those days are long gone, and I don't even smoke anymore. Reservations for 1:00 and leave the restaurant at 3:30 or 4:00 is perfect.
Tiny droplets of rain soon formed a diaphanous cloche over her close-shaven head. Nicola Barker BEHINDLINGS (2002)
Do people still say "supper"? Is it a regional thing?
My (Wisconsin) mom still does, invariably, though she's lived in California for far longer than she lived in Wisconsin.
Noticed that people don't use the word "Supper" any more. Its usually dinner. Maybe that was rural farm thing and its faded away.
BTW, some of the French still have their 2 hour lunch. And drink wine and have a delicious meat/poultry dish. No, grabbing a burger and eating it at your desk.
A 35 hour work week was instituted some time ago, so the French will start work at 8 and work till 5. With a 2 hour break. oolala.
"Everyone with any sense and experience in life would rather take his fellows one by one than in a crowd. Crowds are noisy, unreasonable, and impatient. They can trample you easier than a single person can. And a crowd will never buy you lunch." - P.J. O'Rourke
In Spain it is common to have a very long lunch and close up the business from mid day until 4 or 5. They then re-open until mid evening. Dinner starts at 10 or later.
I should say it was common. It has been 25 years since I lived there, and things may have changed.
The "-unch" words seem to convey a similar idea: hunch, bunch, lunch, crunch, munch, punch, scrunch.
God, I love Hopper. I know that’s terribly middlebrow (maybe even lowbrow if we’re talking about Nighthawks). But the power of his use of light to evoke memories for me personally is almost freaky.
Maybe that was rural farm thing and its faded away.
Supper and dinner both come from French: souper and diner. And even today, in both France and Quebec, the French still argue over which is proper when. And, just as here, the rural areas will tend to soupent while the cities dinent.
Supper is still used in Wisconsin. Heck, we even have supper clubs!. The first time I went to the Art Institute in Chicago was for a Hopper show. Loved it. If I cared what our so-called art world thinks, I'd be unhappy that he's considered middle-brow now. (Of course the only evidence I have for that is that the cracker emcee refulgent says so).
Muncha buncha muncha buncha Fritos go with lunch...
https://youtu.be/YUFtoGZxeyM
RR
JSM
@ john mosby - today's lunch was a tuna salad sandwich and I grabbed a bag of Funyuns from the break room. Went perfectly.
God, I love Hopper.
Is there anyone who doesn't? Hopper is one of the few artists who is liked by all the brows.
Agree with you about Hopper, Cracker Emcee.
And his use of light to evoke boobs is real and spectacular.
lunch(n.)
"mid-day repast, small meal between breakfast and dinner," 1786, a shortened form of luncheon (q.v.) in this sense (1650s), which is of uncertain origin; it appears to be identical with an older word meaning "thick piece, hunk" (1570s), which perhaps evolved from lump (n.) [OED]. There also was a contemporary nuncheon "light mid-day meal," from noon + Middle English schench "drink." Old English had nonmete "afternoon meal," literally "noon-meat" (Middle English non-mete). The verb meaning "to take to lunch" (said to be from the noun) also is attested from 1786
- etymonline.com
Lunch is also the midday launch of the second half of the day. Maybe, baby... fetu/re.
If anyone here likes the artwork of Hopper, I can also recommend Leland Foster, who borrows from both Hopper and Wyeth. https://www.lelandkfoster.com/
O&S wrote: "I miss having a cigarette or two with brandy and coffee at the table, but those days are long gone, and I don't even smoke anymore."
Brings to mind Liz Taylor's observation: "People without vices usually have some pretty annoying virtues."
A day without wine is a day without sunshine. Santé
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